1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the field of compacting devices, and more particularly, to a device for compacting an empty plastic bottle that forces a bottom portion of the bottle into a protected neck portion to overcome the memory of the bottle and prevent it from expanding subsequent to compaction.
2. Background of the Invention
Compactors are well known in the art, both on residential and commercial scales, for reducing the volume of an empty article. With regard to polyethylene terephthalate (PET) articles in particular, such as plastic soda and water bottles, it is desirable to reduce the volume of these articles after use for baling and recycling purposes, as well as generally reducing trash volume. As PET articles tend to have a ‘memory’ that creates a rebound effect after compaction and during the baling process, plastic balers for these materials are often designed to accommodate higher pressures as well as overcome the memory factor to produce tight, dense bales that hold together well. These specially designed balers not only require special features that come at a price, but produce bales under high pressures that can come apart unexpectedly, causing injury and increasing handling costs.
Conventional compactors generally function to reduce the volume of an article by forcing the ends of the article toward one another. Plastic bottles, in particular, are engineered to be vertically compacted, i.e. with forces applied along their longitudinal axis. This is typically accomplished by securing the bottle within a fixture and actuating a moveable plate that forces one end of the bottle toward the other. While a state of compaction is achieved, the full amount of compaction applied is not typically able to be maintained, as the memory of the bottle causes it to partly return to its original shape. While the amount of rebound of the bottle may be slight and not critical when considering a single bottle, over time and when hundreds or thousands of bottles are baled together, such rebound forces produce bales under dangerously high pressures.